Law School Objects to 'U.S. News' Declaring It 'Unranked'

Submitted by Scott Jaschik on April 2, 2012 - 3:00am

The law dean of the University of St. Thomas has released an open letter[1] to Bob Morse, the head of the college rankings of U.S. News & World Report, objecting to the magazine's decision to declare the law school "unranked." The law school was declined a ranking after it reported that it had provided both accurate and inaccurate data on its job placement rates, and the inaccurate data had been used to rank the school. Thomas M. Mengler, the dean, noted that the magazine typically does not change rankings when errors are discovered after the rankings are released -- even in cases where the information provided was intentionally incorrect. "If the decision to 'unrank' is indeed a change in protocol, this leads to the policy concern I would like to highlight – the fact that your decision will create a disincentive for law schools to promptly report mistaken or erroneous data," Mengler wrote. "When other law schools lied, you called on all law schools to protect the integrity of the data and ultimately the reporting. We did that even for an unintentional mistake. And while we are willing to live with the unfortunate consequences, I fear your decision will serve as a disincentive for others to self-report errors."

Brian Kelly, editor of the magazine, responded with a letter in which he said: "We made this decision for the 2013 law school rankings at a time of continuing conversation about law school data, both inside and outside the academy. Some schools have been accused of publishing inaccurate or misleading data. The American Bar Association is imposing more stringent reporting rules. And at U.S. News our responsibility is to continue to provide timely and relevant information about law schools to our readers, and to make them aware of new developments or changes in information. That is what we did in this case."